


Distancing

by Eiprej



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Drug Dealing, Drugs, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-25
Updated: 2015-09-25
Packaged: 2018-04-23 06:59:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4867502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eiprej/pseuds/Eiprej
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stella doesn't make friends with her clients.</p><p>Usually it works out all fine. It's infinitely easier when she has some of Blackwell's richest elite stopping her outside behind the school, whispering in hushed breaths about the shit they want and the crap they don't trust getting from Nathan.<br/>[ Stella thinks briefly about how easy she has it, and then has to make a mental note that Chloe is nowhere near the status of ‘Blackwell’s richest elite”. ]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Distancing

**Author's Note:**

> This was NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN but i saw [inganah's](http://inganah.tumblr.com/post/129805660388/listens-to-paper-planes-and-headcanons-that) art on Stella and I just had to spit out a short ficlet before starting on bigger things.
> 
> Please go look at that art. It's perfect.

Stella doesn't make friends with her clients.

All she does is go back to her dorm room, open the safe she's got in there, and pack her plain purple backpack with whatever's been demanded. That's after she checks her phone, of course, checking at texts identified by contacts with strictly professional names.

( Juliet Watson, Dana Ward, Courtney Wagner, Taylor Christensen -- )

She's kind of built up a persona for herself. Not too quiet and not too loud, just a girl with a 4.0 GPA and with her nose stuck in the books. Typical, with glasses and a printed pink hoodie. It helps to make people less suspicious when she's always looking at her phone, because no one would expect to see texts from teenage stoners blowing up the message screen.

( 'hey r u free rn?'

'need sum bud NAO'

'what strands u got?' )

It's not exactly a lie, because she is that intelligent bookworm that she showcases. But that doesn't mean she can't do something completely different under some wraps.

And it helps avoid suspicion, because no one would ever believe someone if they said they saw Stella Hill with Frank Bowers every Wednesday evening.

So she uses the fact that she doesn't make friends with her clients a buffer. It's normally easy, because they want their goods as quickly as Stella wants to leave. They hand her her bills, and she hands them their baggies, and she turns the other way and leaves with a nod.

Usually it works out all fine. It's infinitely easier when she has some of Blackwell's richest elite stopping her outside behind the school, whispering in hushed breaths about the shit they want and the crap they don't trust getting from Nathan. The stuff they're too afraid to get from Frank, lest they're seen and "ruin" their entire reputation.

Stella isn't complaining. She's not surprised that these kids don't want to get their hands dirty, don't want the risk of actually dealing with someone who is threatening and looks so suspicious it'd immediately damage their outward appearance. So she certainly isn't complaining, especially when they shove fifty dollar bills into her hands, clean and nicely pressed.

It's also secretly amazing to see how many of the Vortex Club members trust her drugs over Nathan's, which says a lot about the internal mindset of them about the unstable Prescott.

( Once, she deals with Taylor, who tries to act as standoffish as possible while she hands her two twenties. It's so amusing, though all she does is raise her brows and smile, taking the bills into her hands and replacing it with a whole other brand of green. )

So it all works out, not wanting to get close.

Except today.

In which she'd bumped into a grumpy Chloe Price in the junkyard -- where she'd insisted, no matter how stupidly shady it seemed -- who sticks out a crumpled ten to her. She's alone, surprisingly; it's a shock not to see Rachel Amber hanging off of her -- no. Correction. It's a shock not to see _her_ hanging off of Rachel Amber.

( It's weird, actually; Stella isn't Chloe's usual dealer,  _Frank_ is, so she's unsure why she's calling her specifically _now._ )

Still. Not her problem. None of her business.

Until Chloe makes it her business. Chloe looks at her and shoves her hands into her pockets. "Totally still in shock that you deal too. You've got that total nerd vibe going on."

Stella freezes, tucks the cash into her pocket, and then offers a cautious smile. "I have to pay for Blackwell somehow."

Chloe raises a brow and then chuckles, lowly, miles away from the genuine laughter that she hears when she's hanging around Rachel. "Selling drugs to pay for school... damn, that's like some bad Breaking Bad ripoff."

"My life isn't nearly as interesting as Walter's, nor do I want it to be."

Chloe's eyes sparkle, she thinks, and she steps closer into Stella's face. She unconsciously takes a step away from her client. "You watch Breaking Bad?"

Stella blinks, and then shrugs, lips tugged into a tight smile. "Really, who doesn't?"

And that is how she ends up sitting in some odd concrete hideout in the junkyard, in some chair that she's positive usually has another resident than herself. Chloe's got Breaking Bad pulled up on her phone, feet propped up on the table and phone resting on the bent angle of her knee.

Earlier, Chloe had offered to let her huff on her joint, but Stella waves her off with a short laugh and an assertion of, "I only deal, really."

Stella chuckles under her hand at the screen and excited whoop Chloe gives when she moves onto the next episode, without any permission at all.

She doesn't usually make friends with her clients, but then again -- Chloe isn't her usual client.

( Stella tells Frank about it the next time he deals, and in response, Frank makes this gruff noise and mutters in irritation about some "stupid, teenage fight" with Rachel Amber. How he knows, Stella doesn't want to question -- she's seen a shirt that looks suspiciously like that model's in the crack of Frank's RV door. She also wonders if Chloe knows, and then decides:

That's still none of her business. )

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr is [here!.](http://chloepricewithgun.tumblr.com)


End file.
